Asus F1A75V-Pro Setup, Review and Testing (Added to Wiki L1 & L2)

[crankbearing]

I plan on rebuilding my original 15 Drive Unraid server, that has served me well for a long time, I think I was a customer before the forums were even started - 

 

User shares were not thought of yet; neither was a cache drive or many of the great new features of the Unraid system. I now have a tons of doubles in my server from adding HD versions of the movie and I want to remove those as well.

 

I picked up the Asus F1A75V-Pro for a few reasons after three or 4 days of research. bleeding edge I was a little concerned but I know that 5 final is around the corner. The cpu is the A3500 and I chose 2x4GB Kingston 1600 ddr-3 really on price at 25$ on sale you cannot complain. All this is overkill I know but the feature set was worth it.

 

I installed a Corsair TX750 PSU as well.

 

Why I picked up the board.

 

ATX Size

3 PCI

2 Pcie x1

6 Sata 6Gb Ports ASUS Header (White)

1 Sata 6Gb (BLUE) Asmedia Controller (Supports AHCI, IDE and SATA mode in the bios)

Realtek Lan 1GB (tested with 4.7 and 5.0 b14 so far with no issues)

10 USB 2.0 (2 on back panel under the lan connector - You must use one of these to boot from)

AMD USB 3.0ports (blue on back panel) Work after OS is installed (do not use for unraid flash)

ASUS MEM OK (diagnose ram when installed prior to booting up)

ASUS TPU Switch

ASUS EPU Switch (scaled power saving)

Digi+ VRM from the two onboard processors above (EPU and TPU) All in the digital domain, instant powersaving and stability

 

We will see if it all works out.

 

In the bios I disabled (set to advanced for the old style bios look and disable the flash screen)

 

disable all the features not used audio, etc...

disable all boot choices but #1

Set sata ports to AHCI (did not like this on the single Asmedia (blue) ports set them all back to IDE. (I will play around some this afternoon and report back on the modes)

Set to boot USB flash (was nearly automatic- bios found it immediately and you have a choice of std or eufi mode, I chose the STD mode.)

 

Formatted a fresh Kingston USB Flash and loaded up 4.7

I changed some network settings in the config file so it would not conflict with my other servers.

I changed the name of the server to TEST for this session.

 

Rebooted and VOILA it's running - I ran memtest for a couple passes first to make sure ram was good (ran it much longer overnight)

Installed (Unmenu, Perl, powerdown, APC Control, openssl and ssh) And all items functioned as they should.

 

my issues came when I was trying to get sensor info from this board. I am not sure which version of lm-sensors or sensors-detect 4.7 has but it would not detect a chip on this board - No How.

 

Off I went to try one of the 5.0 beta's I looked for 6a but it has been removed so I downloaded b14. I first just copied over the bz files to the flash and did not disable any add-ons that was a no go. The board booted and loaded Unraid fine but I could not access the Unmenu or Unraid web gui's nor could I access my flash drive from my win7 x64 desktop.

 

I formatted the flash and reinstalled 5b14 clean and rebooted and voila no issues. I got the Unraid web screen (I have no drives in this system therefore no array, and I could not run the permissions which is why I believe I could not access the flash from windows7. I just went into the flash drives properties on Win7, cleared it's state and re-activated the share within win7 and voila I have access.

 

I proceeded to install all the same add-ons from above and they all functioned fine but again I hit the lm-sensors roadblock (I am not sure if sensors-detect and lm-sensors is the newest version in 5.0 with almost the latest kernel, but I still cannot get a sensor chip detected on this board. (I will do some google research and report back on this)

 

I have to layout a gameplan to rollout this new server, as I am building from scratch but moving all the files from my existing server over to the new drives, removing some redundancy in movie files and re-encoding my dvd-rips to x264 at the same time; finally setting up user shares and adding a cache drive (which I think the extra sata port will be good for at this point anyhow)

 

(Tom if you read this I have one issue (both of my keys are used up on my two servers, I am taking down my main media server to replace it with this new one so how can I build this new server (adding more than three drives) then copy my prokey to this new flash setup from the old. I need to do this in stages and not really wanting to purchase another key when I already have the two.)

 

I plan on adding some drives and get started this afternoon on this project, I will post some transfer speeds and more on reliabilty. I am not sure how to test power related items, if someone want to give me a quick run down I would be happy to do so and post the results as well.

 

More to come... 

 

 

 

 

[crankbearing]

I downloaded the latest, sensors-detect script and ran it on this board. (if you are not aware you need perl installed to run sensors-detect, easiect to use unMenu to install it.)

 

mkdir /boot/sensor (I did this from the flash share in W7)

cd /boot/sensor

wget http://www.lm-sensors.org/svn/lm-sensors/trunk/prog/detect/sensors-detect

perl /boot/sensor/sensors-detect (make sure you use this line to run the latest version you downloaded or you will run the old version that is the /usr path.)

 

the it87 driver and the k10temp driver are required for this board. They should be in the 2.6.38 kernel for the k10temp (12h and 14h families) driver and the it87 driver should be in the 2.5 through 3.3 kernel depending on which version. It cannot load the modules with the current 4.7 kernel used; I read in another post they may be in the vanilla kernels but not necessarily in the unraid built kernel versions.

 

Any help on this would be great, can we dwnld the std alone drivers and build the modules without recompiling the kernel I know this is like a NO but I have to try. LOL.

 

The version of lm-sensors in 4.7 is 3.03. I hope that 3.3.1 gets built into the newest unraid (please Tom)

 

I am still debating on user share setup to report on clearing and transfers speeds.

 

rgds,

 

Dave

[crankbearing]

I decided to run 5b14 to get support for 3TB and I am 19hours (15% of post-read currently) into my 1st pre-clear cycle on a wd 3.0TB EZRX (not jumpered) it is averaging 105-111 MB/s on the mainboard sata 6G/B I/O.

 

AN FYI - I opted for this board due to the fact it had 3 pci slots and I have two pci Promise TX300 4 port controllers in my old server but more research has revealed the pci-e slot are x16 and x4, the -evo counterpart to the board has 3 pci-e and two pci slots and those are x8x8 and a x4 but has a 140$ rough price tag. I got the pro board for $119 and 15$ rebate locally no shipping and I think it will still support two pci-x4 controllers if need be.

 

rgds,

 

Dave

[crankbearing]

Just an Update -

 

Added the board to the HC List on the wiki. Installed my New x4 saslp card in the PCIe x16 slot with no problem (other then a bad breakout cable) I have pre-cleared 5 drives with this board so far with no issues other than hardware (drive related) switched bios to ACHI for all on-board ports

 

When switching the bios to achi for all sats ports it will open another option for sata port 5-6; set that to achi as well Unraid picks them up just fine.

All CPU features on this board I left either as-is or in auto. 

 

options to this board from asus read the features at the links- I would not goto the matx version but only upgrade to evo version to get the 3 pcie support at x8x8x4.

 

F1A75V-M (Matx) 1 2.0 PCIe x16, 1 2.0 PCIe x4,  PCI, 6 Sata 6Gb  2 Dimm Slots  http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131768

 

F1A75V-EVO (ATX) 2 2.0 PCIe X16 (x8x8) 1 2.0 PCIe x4, PCI, 7 Sata 6Gb  http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131784

 

Will hopefully be able to commit level 1 testing by the weekend.

 

rgds,

 

Dave

[crankbearing]

level 1 tested, it is a long log sorry bur it shows two preclears, parity sync and check start and stops.

 

if you want to check the log and let me know then I will update the wiki as level 1.

 

Thanks,

 

Dave

syslog.zip

[crankbearing]

UPDATE

 

Reverted the onboard sata controller back to 3GB from 6GB due to errors in log when copying file over. Not sure if kernel or hardware related. I have copied 1.5TB since with no errors.

 

Installed a 2nd saslp in the 2nd pciex16 slot with no issues. server finds and sets it up.

 

I have setup another Sata 6 2TB drive on the 7th ASmedia Controlled sata6 port on the board and am pre-clearing that drive now and have had no errors in the log since it started.

 

Will post back when level two is completed.

 

rgds,

 

Dave

[unSANe]

+1 for the level 1 check. I am considering this MB for my build. Please...

[Bob L]

Thanks to the work of bubbaq & chickensoup in http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=16126.msg149218#msg149218 & then crankbearing in this thread, I used the Asus F1A75V-Pro and an A6-3670 to update our old server.

 

All seems to be fine running 5b14.

 

[crankbearing]

Hi All,

 

Added to wiki Level 1 and Level 2 - Tested - 8 Drives - 2-3 parity checks zero errors - 9TB copied out of 18TB total array size - 1 reboot in a couple months for changes to user shares. The syslog is after that reboot.

 

If the syslog shows a hard power down was my fault, I hit the button on the wrong ups when making a battery change beep and it turned out to be the other ups in the same room hooked to my win$ machines.

 

I updated the wiki with level 1 & 2 testing on this board. It has worked with NO issues. I am currently (SLOWLY) Migrating the old server to the new and re-encoding about 1200 DVD's to mkv's from one server to the new one. I am runnnig 5B14. There are a couple errors in the syslog which I know will be fixed by the new kernel with 5B15 or 5 release. I have had no problems with the board after setting the drives back to 3GB transfer speeds from the 6GB I had it set to. I have 2 SuperMicro pci-e controllers in the system and I have the board's sata ports populated with a mix of 2 and 3 TB drives, my parity drive is a 3TB WD.

 

I have done several parity checks since my last post and copied 9TB to the server as well as manipulated a bunch of files outside of my user shares. I get between 60-80MB/s second on my parity checks and 15-50MB/s on copying data to and from the server. I have had ZERO parity errors.

 

I have pretty much all of the plugins with Unmenu and apcupsd installed again with no issues.

 

I have had a couple pm's about the board so I thought I would update the thread. I will get the level 2 and 3 info posted to the wiki as well. I really do not think you need to waste money on a big cpu here either I would actually by the cheapest one that works on the board, it is fast as it is.

 

regards,

 

D.

syslog-2012-04-27.txt

[mgworek]

Hey crankbearing,

 

I am ready to go live with this board this weekend. I see you listed your bios settings, what about jumpers on the board itself? I see there are a few to change a few settings.

 

My board has been tested in general with cpu & memory. Everything seems fine so far.

 

Thanks

[thica]

I downloaded the latest, sensors-detect script and ran it on this board. (if you are not aware you need perl installed to run sensors-detect, easiect to use unMenu to install it.)

 

mkdir /boot/sensor (I did this from the flash share in W7)

cd /boot/sensor

wget http://www.lm-sensors.org/svn/lm-sensors/trunk/prog/detect/sensors-detect

perl /boot/sensor/sensors-detect (make sure you use this line to run the latest version you downloaded or you will run the old version that is the /usr path.)

 

the it87 driver and the k10temp driver are required for this board. They should be in the 2.6.38 kernel for the k10temp (12h and 14h families) driver and the it87 driver should be in the 2.5 through 3.3 kernel depending on which version. It cannot load the modules with the current 4.7 kernel used; I read in another post they may be in the vanilla kernels but not necessarily in the unraid built kernel versions.

 

Any help on this would be great, can we dwnld the std alone drivers and build the modules without recompiling the kernel I know this is like a NO but I have to try. LOL.

 

The version of lm-sensors in 4.7 is 3.03. I hope that 3.3.1 gets built into the newest unraid (please Tom)

 

I am still debating on user share setup to report on clearing and transfers speeds.

 

rgds,

 

Dave

 

Have you solved the issue with k10temp? I have the same problem!

[mgworek]

Just upgraded to the mother board. Booted fine, array started fine. Doing a parity check now.

 

Thanks for posting about this board!

[comminus]

Just upgraded to the F1A75V-M board after a hardware failure. Currenty, I only run 5 drives at the moment, but the 2 PCI-E x16 slots (8x8) will allow for expansion. So far, everything is fantastic

[sacretagent]

can i ask which processor you guys are using with this puppy

 

I might with this systemboard but was not sure which processor?

 

A4-3400

A6-3500

 

bit weary about a 3 core processor but with plex and sab/couch/sickbeard/headphones a third core might be helpfull ?

 

trying to find some advice on this

 

Anybody running this on 6gb for the sata controller ?

if no would it not be better to buy the F1-A55 ? he has only 3gb speed

 

[comminus]

I'm running the A4-3400. Saw no need for more since I'm not doing any transcoding or the like. Plex has a Core 2 Duo @ 2.4GHz with 2GB ram listed as recommended - which is very close to my previous setup. Depending on how Plex handles multi-core processing the A6-3500 could perform better or worse. The 3400 is 2 cores @ 2.7GHz whereas the 3500 is 3 cores @2.1GHz base / 2.4GHz turbo. Provided that Plex's transcoding can scale beyond 2 cores, you *may* see an increase in performance.

 

Having said that, the A4-3400 will outclass a Core 2 @2.4Ghz, and if that's all that is required for transcoding (plus some nice ram of course), personally I'd just go with the 3400.

 

I have no SATA3 drives in my array at the moment. I went with the A75 over the A55 for a bit of future-proofing. I don't see the point in buying older hardware when is essentially the same price for current, but it's all personal preference.

 

A side note unRAID 5 is required to support the onboard Atheros NIC.

[rvank]

Hi i'm looking to update the MB in my two unraid servers, has anyone tried this MB with 1 or 2 Supermicro 8-Port SAS/SATA Card's - (AOC-SASLP-MV8)

 

I can't expand one of my unraid servers because of the 12 drive bios limit, now i want to be sure that the new MB will support more than 12 drives.

 

Also any experience with 3TB dirves with this MB and sata card ?

 

A lot of the MB's mentioned in this forum are not available here in Norway, this MB is available so i hope it can support the 2 sata cards so i am future proof.

 

Kind regards

Rob

 

[Rusty]

Would anyone know the answer to the question above?

I am looking to build my first server (finally) and this board looks very temping.

Having the ability to use 2 8-port SATA cards would make it perfect for me.

[klgray]

I don't have this particular motherboard, but I do have two unRAID boxes with an ASUS F1A75-M LE and an ASUS F1A55-M LE and both of them are running two AOC-SASLP-MV8 cards. I would think the chances are good it would work with this motherboard as well.

 

Ken

[Rusty]

Great thanks for the info!

[rick-k]

I just upgraded my motherboard to the F1A75v-EVO and  I can't boot from the USB stick that I have been using. I did not connect any of the hard drives to the board because I wanted to just check the system memory first and make sure that the device configuration is cleared before I start the system. I am using Cruzer micro with 4.7 installed along with unmenu. The light on the flash device is on but the display is blank and the board won't boot. What went wrong?

[rick-k]

Problem solved. I forgot to set the USB device configuration to Hard Disk. It has been a couple of years since I originally set up my server and I forgot about the setting. I am now running the memory test.